Modern Marketing - Blog by Collaborate PR & Marketing

Will It Be Facebook Wot Won It?

The Sun’s decision to support the UK Conservative party instead of Gordon Brown’s New Labour is creating plenty of interesting discussion.  Spinmeister Alastair Campbell says The Sun isn’t as important as it once was.  Well, he would say that wouldn’t he?  However, whatever his motivation, he’s right.  Now, there’s nothing I like more than putting my feet up with a bacon sandwich, cup of char and The Currant Bun, but it surely isn’t the massive social and cultural force it was in the eighties.  In 1992, the paper had huge sway and cruelly lampooned Neil Kinnock with this classic front page.  Then followed it up with the famous headline – ‘It Was The Sun Wot Won It!’.  Powered by the vast yet always entertaining ego of Kelvin McKenzie, The Nation’s Favourite reached its highest average sale in the week ending 16 July, 1994, when the daily figure was 4,305,957.  Today, along with all other nationals, The Sun's circulation is greatly diminished.  Although at more than 3 million is still very substantial.  However, in the nineties we weren't all connected up to each other.  There weren't 10-20m Brits active on Facebook (depending on who you believe).  The share-and-compare economy was still restricted to chats over the garden fence.  I’ve long given up on the idea that one media will usurp another.  But I really believe the soup is getting thicker and more interesting.  In 1990, newspapers were opinion and opinion were newspapers.  Today, the mainstream media shrieks out its sensational opinion often highlighting the darkest most gruesome aspects of our generally splendid country.  However, that is then filleted, dissected and reduced down to a more reflective – frequently more positive view – by individuals who comment, link, curate, challenge and question the views of Murdoch & Co.  Far from being the echo chamber that mainstream media often characterizes social and other networked media as, the web is now the way the majority of people filter what’s good and bad.  They listen to their friends and see what they are paying attention to.  So will it be The Sun wot win it for Cameron?  Or will it be up to Facebook to give him the thumbs-up?

Digital Britain At NESTA - Just Don't Call It The Carter Report

Stephen Carter may have snaffled a Lordship for his trouble but he has also got a horrible job.  In a notes-free talk at NESTA this morning, the UK Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting explained (confessed?) the painful process of assessing the mangled mix of vested interests, unreconstructed government, personal privacy issues and recession politics that is the reality of Digital Britain - a plan 'of government'.  Indeed, at one point he asked for 'forgiveness' about those areas of the report that he admits are too 'quiet'.  His basic message to the many detractors of the report who say it didn't go far enough in supporting or aligning itself with emerging web culture?  'Not my job, guv'.  He is sticking to the role of policy in shaping the country's web infrastructure.  All of which may account for his bristling at the suggestion that the exercise should have been called the Carter Report.  He may not be in a great rush for his name to be forever linked to such a labyrinthine process.  Peter Bazelgette was also on the panel and posed the more provocative points of the morning.  "Media companies don't know what their business models will be in ten years time," said the chairman of TV production company Endemol UK.  He also seemed to encapsulate the themes of the morning when describing the need to realise the economic benefit from the 'digital dividend' by building 'new organisations', instead of supporting old industries, "like we did with ship-building in the 70's."  For instance, he said in a world where it's no longer possible to, "sell stuff (IP) by putting it in shop windows," we need to explore and support new economic models.  Bazelgette's own view is that in the future content will be paid for, "with attention and access to personal data."  Mr Big Brother also pointed out that yesterday's FT carried a story with a picture of the 'wrong' Lord Carter.  Judging from the look on Lord Digital Britain's face this morning, I bet he wishes the other Lord Carter would step up and navigate a path to the UK's digital nirvana.  It's a long way off.  (Check out the man for yourself on the new Digital Britain blog.)

'UK Online Is Nowhere' Says C4 Boss

I went to NESTA this morning to hear Andy Duncan, C4's boss, describe his vision for a Digital Britain.  Duncan said that big UK media should, 'collectively be embarrassed', about fighting each other over vested interests and consolidation while missing the impact of the web.  Rows which have been partially responsible for the UK being, 'commercially nowhere', when it comes to the global online geography.  'We are in danger of being like the US railroad operators at the end of the last century, which found themselves looking excessively inward - and then the car came along'.  The weighty speech came ahead of the long-awaited Digital Britain report from the UK Government's DCMS (which today the FT says might include Universal Broadband) and the next stage of Ofcom’s Public Service Broadcasting Review.  When considering its strategy to reignite the country's economy, said Duncan, the Government should recognise that the creative industries 'fluffy' image belies its value to UK PLC, two million jobs and sixty billion quid to be precise.  In fact, he said that the UK's media industries could replace the gap left by the country's decimated financial services sector.  But only if there is some very serious change.  In a world, 'where children don't differentiate between content they see on the web and TV', the C4 boss said, 'broadband and broadcasting' are effectively the same thing.  Now that the media ecology has changed to be no longer just content but, 'content plus tools' that allow citizens to 'create services of their own design', the UK could create a, 'digital tools industry' of great value building on its creative excellence.  As ever it comes down to the numbers.  Duncan's financial shorthand is that, 'ten years ago television advertising market in the UK peaked at over £3.5 billion'.  While online advertising didn't exist.  Today the TV market has shrunk to £3bn making it the same size as the online market.  And most of that cash goes to US companies (and one in particular) not into, 'quality British content'.  Inspiring stuff.

Obama - The Revolution Will Be Televised

When it comes to online marketing and fundraising Barack Obama learnt everything he knows from Howard Dean, the Democratic nominee in 2004, and his adviser Joe Trippi who documented the campaign in all its failed glory in the must-read book, ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’.  It’s a great title but turns out to be totally wrong.  The Obama revolution is being televised on a scale that dwarfs all other campaigns.  So how is it that the world’s first presidential candidate to really 'get online' is such a big fan of TV?  The answer lies in the fact that Obama and his team learnt a lot about what works from the Dean campaign, but also a lot about what doesn’t.  In short, Dean’s online campaign ‘Blog For America’ did a great job of bringing supporters together into a movement, but that movement wasn’t very successful as an advocacy vehicle.  Obama has addressed that – and in some style.  He has encouraged his online movement to become an incredibly powerful advocacy tool and get beyond existing believers, in three key ways.  Firstly, he asks people to draw on the energy and inspiration of the massive Obama community by becoming involved and interpreting it for themselves.  Secondly, he gives people the tools to direct their efforts to recruiting new volunteers, not just reinforcing one another’s view of the world.  And finally, using the mind-boggling funds he has generated with these first two techniques he has ensured that the message comes blasting out of the community to the wider world - on TV.  Thereby avoiding the echo-chamber effect experienced by Dean and many other communities.  Obama's campaign illustrates a point I have been making of late.  Frequently in my conversations about networked and social media there is a sense that people feel they have to make a choice.  That they can either stick to traditional techniques or go all out and embrace the new world of community-building, blogs, networked or social media and other peer-to-peer techniques.  My point is that the choice is not one or the other.  The best thing to do is both.  To take the best of the old and the best of the new and blend them together to create a superior modern approach.  No one (in their right mind) believes that television is about to disappear, although it already looks very different from the past, and is losing its utter dominance of the media world.  However, it still reaches the parts that other media cannot reach.  It’s not just the world that Obama may change next Tuesday.  He could be rewriting the marketing books along the way.

The Value Of Things You Don't Own

It's very difficult to understand how you can use something if you don't own it.  Particularly in the commercial world, where the deepest instincts are too control.  All of which can lead to a More, More, More Mentality.  And particularly in the world of data.  After all, when was the last time you heard the words, "I think we need a little less information here"?  After a few hundred years of industrial empire building, it's hardly a surprise.  Many industrial metaphors have been effortlessly shipped over into the networked world to give us data warehouses, data mining and data processing.  In my yard, this mindset manifests itself in the desire to monitor all web content to assess sentiment, word-of-mouth and to extract maximum value.  After all, if you get enough of anything you can get something valuable from it, right?  Salt from enough sea.  Oil from enough earth.  Gold from enough hills.  So suck up enough data and you can extract....er, something valuable.  Right?  Maybe not.  Matt McAlister joins the dots between Umair's Evil thread and Scott Karp's analysis to  point out the pitfalls of this outlook: "I really like the idea that the future of the media business is in the way we build value for all constituencies rather than the way we extract value from various parts of a system. It’s not about how you secure marketshare, control distribution, mitigate risk or reduce costs. It’s about how you enable the creation of value for all."  To my mind, the simple idea is that the skills required to operate within networked media are new because no one does - or can - own all the data.  It's a bit like a library.  You can't really own it because it's actually a system rather than a thing.  However, you're very welcome to borrow stuff.  And maybe if I recommend some good books and you share them with friends we can get together over coffee as a result.  Then we have created a little group (aka social network) that can be valuable to us all and might become a big group.  Or not.  Alternatively, you can create your own library at home.  And put a big lock on it to keep all the value in.

Rise Of The DIY Superstar

"They're all MySpace bands," my niece told me over Christmas when describing her favourite current music, "no one listens to that stuff".  The 'stuff' she was referring to was the BBC's Top 40.  One thing I'll be looking out for in the coming year is more DIY Superstars.  By that I mean talented individuals who are using the web to create an audience, without relying on traditional institutions.  We've already seen examples of talented individuals creating an audience but they have been the exception not the rule.  There's a simple reason for this.  It's bloody hard to do and only a few trailblazers have got the guts.  However, as the old guard get more desperate and the web becomes more mainstream, innovative support structures are appearing that will make it easier for DIY Superstars to flourish.  Talking Heads frontman David Byrne lays out the new music industry landscape in this brilliant Wired article.  "What do record companies do? Or, more precisely, what did they do?," he asks.  However, it's not just the music industry that's feeling the force of economic change, as old-school shackles look less appealing and new ways to get paid appear.  Of course, like every other debate about web-powered change, the old guard won't die completely.  Most will look increasingly battered and withered while a few will rejuvenate themselves by buying into the new markets.  But for modern marketers the opportunities will be plenty.  Because, as we all know, talent creates audiences which creates media which creates customers.  And that's why in 2008 I'll be following my niece's advice.

[UPDATE: Meanwhile Warner is the latest major, shocked at the realisation that Steve Jobs is a) clever and b) self-interested, to throw themselves at Amazon, dropping their DRM knickers on the way!  But you don't understand Jeff's not like Steve!]   

Why Free Is Big Business

'Free' is a word that makes marketing executives anxious because for a long time it either meant cheap and nasty or hippies in fields of mud.  Neither of which look good in a boardroom powerpoint.   But that's all changing, because in networked media - free is big business.  Firstly, it's vital to realise that we are not talking about joining a cult, flower-power or sticking the combination to the company safe on Digg.  That said, these days free does get shareholders reaching for their tie-dye.  Just think about Google.  The mega-corp is a big giver in the shape of a free search engine, video hosting, email...

Typepad Woes

Here are at Modern Marketing we have been suffering with the Typepad service we use for this blog.  My whole system went down on Friday and TP is still not able to help me get back up and running properly.  I like the TP service alot and recommend it widely but I won't be quite so quick to praise it to others after this incident...

Open Source Marketing

Bob Garfield's Ad Age article has lots of great snippets in it (and even a quote from me). Here's a couple...

"Hear that?  In the distance? It's a crowd forming -- a crowd of what you used to call your audience.  They're still an audience, but they aren't necessarily listening to you. They listening to each other talk about you. And they're using your products, your brand names...

Blog Mobs Rule

I went to an event yesterday called Blogging: An Authentic Conversation organised by NMK.  It was an interesting afternoon covering a wide range of subjects, ably hosted by web veteran Steve Bowbrick.  Johnnie used a video of Ceaucescu's last public speech...